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Grace & Peace: Revelation #41

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle” (Rev. 4:6–7).

There are two realities to be interpreted here. The first is the crystal sea. The word is thalassa, which is the word for lake or sea, but it is referring to the heavenly version of the artificial sea that God had Solomon establish in the temple (2 Chron. 4:2-6). In the earthly temple, this is where the priests would purify themselves. Our great high priest has no need of purification, and the bronze sea is now a crystal sea.

It was common for ancient kings to have their thrones settled upon statues of creatures, as Solomon’s throne was established on lions. But those were carved creatures, and these are living creatures. The four living creatures most likely answer to the cherubim in Ezekiel’s vision, with this difference. Each of the four cherubim in Ezekiel have four faces. The same four faces appear here, but each of the cherubim has just one.

These living creatures are in the midst of the throne, and also are around it. The rabbis interpreted the faces to mean king of the wild beasts (lion), king of the domestic beasts (ox), the king of all birds (eagle), and the king of all creatures (man). There appears to be some connection between the cherubim and man in Christ because in v. 9 we see that whenever they give glory to the one who sits on the throne, the 24 elders follow suit and fall down before Him.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation #40

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” (Rev. 4:5).

Around the throne were twenty-four seats for the elders. From the throne were thunder and lightning and voices, and before the throne were seven fiery lamps.

The awe-inspiring spectacle of what was proceeding from the throne—voices, thunder, lightning—conjure up images of Sinai. Just as God manifested Himself in terrifying ways with the first covenant, so also with the second. The author of Hebrews concurs with this, saying that Sinai, a mountain that could be touched in principle was still prohibited to the touch (Heb. 12:18ff). Sinai was characterized by fire, and blackness, and darkness, and these voices. It was terrifying, but the mountain of the new covenant is even more so (Heb. 10:28-29).

Commentators are divided on the seven lamps. The majority view is that this is a numerical representation of the Holy Spirit, with seven as the number of perfection. This has strong support from the fact that the text identifies them as “the seven Spirits of God.” But remember that the Lord Jesus, the one who sits on the throne, walks in the midst of seven lampstands, and these lampstands are the seven churches addressed by this book (Rev. 1:12). The words used for candlestick and lampstand are different words, but this does not make identification impossible.

Also suggestive is the idea that the lampstand in front of the throne here is the celestial menorah. Remember that the original menorah, the one used in the Temple, had seven lights.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation #39

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” (Rev. 4:4).

And so we come to the part of this book where it is necessary to start “identifying” things. You cannot interpret without interpreting, and so here we go.

I take the 24 elders to be representative of the elect of God throughout all history. There were twelve tribes in the Old Testament and twelve apostles in the New, giving us 24. The number 24 is also evocative of the priesthood, which in the time of David was divided into 24 courses (1 Chron. 24:4; 25:9-13). In his vision, Ezekiel saw 25 men—the high priest along with the heads of the 24 orders of priests (Eze. 8:16; 11:1). We have the same thing here. The High Priest is on His throne, and around Him are the 24 elders. These men show that God through the salvation wrought by Christ is reconstituting the earthly component of His Divine Council, as drawn from among men.

These men are called elders (presbyteros), and they also have crowns, which makes them ruling elders. They also have other indications of their priestly function as they are dressed in white, and they offer incense (Rev. 5:8).

These functions together (kings and priests) fit with the self-description of the elders in the next chapter (Rev. 5:10). The elders clearly represent elect mankind because they confess that the Lamb redeemed them with His blood, and has made them “kings and priests.” Their rule is on the earth, and that rule is about to be manifested through the course of the rest of the book.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation #38

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald” (Rev. 4:2–3).

When the heavens open and John is invited up, he says that he was immediately “in the spirit” (v. 2). This is the second time this has happened in the book—the first is when he received the initial vision of the Lord Jesus walking among the churches (Rev. 1:10). Here is the vision of the Lord Jesus enthroned in Heaven.

This vision is very similar to the vision that Ezekiel saw at the beginning of his book (Eze. 1:26-28). Here it says that the color of the one who sat on the throne was like jasper, which can be red, yellow, brown or green. Sardius (known to us as carnelian) is red in color. In Ezekiel, the one who sat on the throne was described as the color of amber in the midst of fire. Here in Revelation, there is a rainbow around the throne, but the rainbow is described as emerald green. In Ezekiel, it is simply described as a rainbow. Clearly John is functioning in an intertextual way, wanting us to think of Ezekiel’s vision while at the same time developing it. The bow is around the throne, and so we should think of it as having a halo effect.

The first color mentioned is the color of jasper, which was the last stone in the high priest’s breastplate (Ex. 28:20; Ex. 39:13). The second stone mentioned here is sardius, which is the first stone in that same breastplate (Ex. 28:17).

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Grace & Peace: Revelation #37

Douglas Wilson on

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter” (Rev. 4:1).

The first three chapters of Revelation should be considered as preamble. John is setting the stage, describing the reasons for the revelation that is about to be made manifest. Remember that the entire book is going to be read to the Philadelphians, to the Laodiceans, to the Thyatirans, and so on. This revelation is going to land in their respective churches very differently. Those in Philadelphia are already overcomers, and so they are ready for what this book contains. Those in Laodicea are not ready, at least not apart from repentance. The truth is always constant, but it strikes different levels of inconstancy differently.

John looked and a door in the heavens opened up. He heard a voice that was described as “the first voice,” and the voice sounded like a trumpet talking. John is invited up into the heavens so that he might be shown the things which were to come “hereafter.” Given what has been said in the preamble, and from details of the revelation itself, we know that these events will be shortly hereafter. John was not being shown the distant future. When Daniel was shown the distant future, he was told to seal the words of the prophecy because the fulfilled events were still 4 centuries in the future. John is told not to seal what he sees, and it would be odd if the events were 20 centuries out and counting.

The other thing to note here is that we see the development of a “two-layer” structure for the remainder of the book. Those two layers are the history of Heaven and the history of earth. God is worshiped in Heaven, and dramatic things are accomplished on earth. God is glorified in Heaven, and God is glorified on earth. And this is how we pray—may Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

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